I Writer See Leni Robredo President & Leading National Primate Change Vs Climate Change, Raising PH Up Regenerative Development!

With wide-ranging public corruption and widespread private poverty, my country the Philippines should now forsake Sustainable Development and pursue Regenerative Development nationwide!

(image of lady with vibrant seedling growing on rich earth from Producers Market, Producersmarket.com)

Ms Leni must save her country from itself! Here is 16-time Palanca Awards winner Jose Dalisay with a poem of encouragement for Ms Leni in the form of a tribute to her husband Jesse Robredo who was a shining exemplar in public service, who served handsomely his country from being Mayor of Naga City to Secretary of Interior & Local Government under President Noynoy Aquino.

Mr Robredo died in the crash of a light airplane in 2012. So, Mr Dalisay’s poem is both a tribute to Jesse and Leni (poem & picture from a Valentine’s Day Facebook sharing by Milwida Sevilla-Reyes). The original title of the poem was “Jesse’s Poem” but which I thought was uninspired and uninspiring; so, following literary tradition, I assigned the very first line as title:

If This Was What I Died For

If this was what I died for
Let no one grieve.
When wife became widow
She could not believe
That hurtful accident could make
Of loss a boundless gain
And of my bones a pillow
To dream away the pain.
If this was what I died for
Then I live on.
My adjourned crusade
Shall now be won.
Between the two of us we knew
This was always she –
The one to crush a rock in hand
To set the jewel free.
If this was what I died for
Let us rejoice.
The mother of our children
Has found her voice
Singing neither lullabies
Nor dirges for the dead
But battle hymns of love and hope
For the armies to be led.

Mr Robredo lives on in the person of his wife Ms Leni who lives for her country, our country.

My adjourned crusade shall now be won.

The Crusade for Good Government. This is reflected in the many mini projects of Ms Leni with private funds, as she is denied public funds by the President, and with the consistent achievement by the Office of the Vice President of the international ISO 9001: 2015 certification for quality management systems, obtained in 2017 and again in 2020. Honesty & integrity.

Between the two of us we knew  
This was always she –
The one to crush a rock in hand
To set the jewel free.

Husband & wife always knew wife would one day set the captives free, from public corruption and private poverty.

Agriculture is the #1 industry in the Philippines. Today, we cannot ignore climate change, and within Agriculture lies our salvation from this global/national threat. Therefore, exercising the art of communication for development, I now say to would-be President Leni Robredo: “To save the Philippines, let us forsake the Un/Sustainable Development that we are currently following, and instead undertake & uphold Regenerative Development¸ where there must be Heart in the Art, especially in Agriculture!”@517